The present invention relates to a storage compartment having a slidable tray adapted to move between a retracted position wherein the tray is nested inside the storage compartment and an extended position wherein at least a portion of the try is located outside of the storage compartment to make it easier to access cargo on the tray.
Vehicles such as recreational vehicles and charter buses typically have cargo bays or storage compartments disposed within the vehicle body between the bottom of the vehicle and the floor of the vehicle. These storage compartments typically offer a generous amount of storage capacity that is accessible through cargo bay doors located on the outside of the vehicle. However, because these vehicles can be eight feet wide, cargo placed near the center of the storage compartments can be difficult to access without crawling inside the storage compartment. It can be especially difficult to access cargo in these storage compartments if the vehicle has an expandable room that extends outward beyond the sidewall of the vehicle when in its expanded position. (Vehicles having expandable rooms are generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,293,612 (Crean) which is hereby incorporated by reference.) Vehicles having expandable rooms require the user to crouch under the expandable room to access the storage compartment. This can be difficult and awkward for the user, especially if the user is elderly.
Several devices have been developed to assist users in accessing cargo in storage compartments by providing a slidable tray combined with the inside of the storage compartment. The slidable tray is adapted to move between a retracted position wherein the tray is nested inside the storage compartment and an extended position wherein at least a portion of the try is outside of the storage compartment. In the slidable tray's extended position, cargo is more readily accessible. Some existing slidable cargo trays are dual direction trays which means that the tray can extend from its nested position toward either the driver's side or the passenger's side of the vehicle. One type of slidable tray slides on rollers or bearings and is manually moved between its extended and retracted positions by the user. The problem with manual actuation of the slidable tray is that heavy cargo can make it difficult for users (especially elderly users) to move the tray between extended and retracted positions. Another problem with manually actuated slidable trays is that if the vehicle has an expandable room, the user must crouch under the expandable room (when in its expanded position) to pull the tray out from the storage compartment.
Another type of existing slidable storage tray uses an electric motor mounted on one side of the tray to move the tray between its extended and retracted positions. The tray slides on tracks having limit switches that tell the motor when to stop as the tray approaches the end of its track. There are several problems with using electric motors to move the slidable trays. One problem is that the limit switches can be misplaced or become damaged thereby causing the motor to stop at an incorrect location along the track. Another problem with this type of device is that the tray may bind on its track since power (i.e. the electric motor) is only being delivered to one side of the tray.
To the best of our knowledge, hydraulic cylinders have never previously been used to actuate a dual directional slidable storage tray device. One reason for this is because a design has not heretofore been presented that ensures that the hydraulic cylinders will be retracted inside the cargo bay when the tray is retracted inside the cargo bay. In other words, the difficulty with using hydraulic cylinders to actuate a dual directional tray is that situations may arise wherein a portion of one of the hydraulic cylinders (i.e. either the rod end or the barrel end) would be in an extended position outside the cargo bay even when the slidable tray is retracted inside the storage compartment. One of the features of this invention overcomes this problem by arranging the hydraulic cylinders in such a way that when the slidable tray is retracted inside the storage compartment, both cylinders are also retracted inside the storage compartment. Other features and benefits of this invention will be understood by the following disclosure.